Too scrawny and frail to enlist in the U.S. Military during World War II, Steve Rogers volunteered to receive the experimental Super-Soldier Serum. Enhanced to the pinnacle of human physical potential he became Captain America.

With the recent release of the new 'Captain America: Winter Soldier' movie, there has been a lot of buzz around the Cap's fighting skills and the combat disciplines he is trained in.

Steve Rogers was trained extensively in multiple forms of combat including martial arts. Thanks to the Super Soldier Serum, he was able skip the physical conditioning and flexibility training. Although a few of them have been identified, not every discipline he was trained in is known.

The only revealed disciplines are American Boxing, Judo, Aikido, and Jujutsu, but he has utilized various different techniques and methods from multiple others fighting styles.

Among these are various Kung fu styles such as Tai-chi-chuan, Wing Chun, various Shaolin arm methods which he incorporates for his shield, Chin-Na, and northern kicking methods, Capoeira (acrobatic brazilian martial arts), Muay Thai, Karate, Eskrima, and hand techniques used in Ninjutsu.

While there are potential other forms which may play a role, many of them were invented after WW2 or during it when Rogers was engaging the enemy axis.  He generally uses many different techniques often seen today in modern kickboxing, wushu, and mixed martial arts.

While eastern martial arts were not well recognized during the late 1930s and early 1940s; (many of them were regarded as flashy, and even useless movements), he may have possibly learned different techniques from fighting other persons who used them.

Two of his best students Bucky and Hawkeye have been seen using at least one sophisticated hand technique from Ninjutsu that was meant for sensitive points of the body, confirming that Captain Rogers taught it to them giving credence to the idea that he may have learned it after confronting Hand Ninjas before the United States officially joined the war.


Captain America incorporates every area of combat in his methods. He excels in punching, kicking, elbowing, kneeing, headbutting, hand techniques and pressure point fighting, grappling, blocking, parrying, trapping, joint locking and manipulating, restraining, disarming, ground fighting, and tricking.

He is extremely fluid when fighting enabling himself to adapt to any change in the environment or the physical status of him or his opponent.  He is able to shift from stand up combat to ground fighting, and even aerial combat due to his mastery over acrobatics. (Chris Evans actually trained in gymnastics to prepare for his role in the 'Winter Soldier').  He has turned his falls from being hit by an opponent into acrobatic kicks and punches by using the momentum from the assault and "flowing" with it. 

Tricking also plays an especially large role in his form often using many of those techniques against multiple opponents to create space and confusion, as well as aerial combat (he initially nicknamed it combat gymnastics since there was originally no official name for it).

The Cap does not generally use any weapons other than his shield, but his training in Aikido, Jujutsu, overall combat experience, and understanding of hand-to-hand combat techniques enables him to wield all forms of weaponry with great proficiency.

He is also well aware the existence of Chi (Ki, or internal energy), and uses it for both combat and health reasons.



Rogers uses any advantage he can find against his opponents, especially if they are physically larger than him, he would assault the larger and easier to hit pressure points. He has often defeated opponents much bigger and stronger this way.

He trains routinely in simulated combat sometimes blindfolded, in dark and pitch black areas, and even in slippery and uneven terrains to the event of ever having fight in them. 

Although peak human, he isn't always the strongest fighter, not Hulk strong, or even fast like Spiderman, but what he does have is a lifetime of combat knowledge, indomitable will, and unrelenting stamina. Those are his defining characteristics. He routinely fights guys who are on paper, miles ahead of him, but he outfights them just the same.

Cap isn't about straight out-punching guys. He knows their weak spots and hits them there, this new skill reflects that perfectly.  

In the pirate ship scenes from the 'Winter Soldier', Cap employs more modern techniques, by taking a knife from one pirate and throws it through the hand of another, because the second pirate is reaching for the alarm and it’s the only way he can stop him. Using your assailant’s weapon against him is a main tenant of Krav Maga. Captain America has a lot more tools at his disposal to turn him into a modern warrior.

 Stunt coordinator Thomas Robinson Harper explains the styles of fighting used in the ship sequence and the film.

“The fighting techniques that we used in this are a mixture of Parkour, Brazilian Ju Jitzu, karate and boxing,   so it’s truly a mixed martial arts that we had Chris training for because part of bringing the character into modern day is that Steve Rogers has studied and mastered these modern fighting styles and techniques"

So in essence, Cap can move, using his shield, multiple martial art forms, and acrobatics in concert. He is a truly powerful and devastating combatant.

I don't know about you, but based on the news these days, I've been going through my bug-out checklist to make sure I'm set. In addition to that, I've been thinking of all the secondary places I could take shelter when $h!t hits the fan and there is chaos and anarchy in the city streets. 

I can share with you a few of my own reasons I'm bugging out to a wilderness setting too.

First of all, your biggest threat in a collapse is likely to be other people who aren't prepared.

They'll be scared, panicked, and yes... even violent!

Most people will stay close to the cities because they are dependant on the government to hand them food and other supplies and take care of them. But the smart ones do not rely on anyone else and are always prepared for any crisis situation.

These people will stay far away from the wilderness because, frankly, they just don't have the skills to survive out there.

And that is why, in times of economic and social crisis, the "bush" is your best bet to be safe from thugs and looters, IF you plan it right!


But for you to be able to stay alive in the wilderness, you have to know basic survival skills and fine-tune your ability to do things like:

 

• Build a fire
• Find and purify water
• Know what foods to eat
• Build a quality shelter you can actually live in
• Handle your own medical needs
• Etc.

Don't think you can just watch a few episodes of Man vs. Wild and think you have it down. It really does take step-by-step wilderness survival training to master these life-saving skills.

Believe me, staying in the city can be dangerous when the world comes crashing down. At least for the initial stages, you're way better off in an area most people would not think of going to.

But let's be frank here...not everyone can find a safe and secure bug-out retreat that easily and learning wilderness survival skills is not an easy task to accomplish.
As you'll see in the video below, there are ways to protect yourself and your family from the violent mobs that we have all seen on TV, whether it be in Greece, Brazil or even right here at home in New Orleans during hurricane Katrina.


So either you grab your map... chart out your options... and get your wilderness survival skills up to snuff now or prepare for turbulent times using the Urban Survival Program today.

I see the storm clouds coming. 

Go here now.. http://www.UrbanSurvivalPlan.com

A lot of people are skeptical of whether self-defense and martial arts techniques will really work against a bigger, stronger attacker.  Unfortunately, many of the traditional techniques people learn, fail the test when facing a giant mass of muscle looking to pound you into the ground.

But real street fighting techniques like hand-to-hand close quarters combat have been proven extremely powerful and devastating no matter how big and ferocious the attacker. (think Jason Statham against biker thugs).

For example, if you followed the "old school" days of cage fighting, you might remember a giant brute by the name of "Tank" Abbott.  If you didn't, well... just imagine the meanest looking barroom brawler biker dude you'd ever hate to be on the wrong side of.  About 250 lbs of muscle and fat mixed together in a nasty soup of "I don't give a f#*k!".

In fact his motto was "Anywhere - Anytime!"  In bars, he would get drunk and crush skulls just for the fun of it.  When he turned to professional cage fighting, he used the same techniques to intimidate and destroy weaker men like a bulldozer.

Except that Tank had one weak area that smaller attackers used to easily defeat him no matter how much he tried to defend himself, and YOU can use this very same sneaky tactic to defeat a much larger, stronger man regardless of your own size or strength.

Here's how it works...


Secret Destruction Point For Defeating Larger or Multiple Attackers

The fleshy part of the outside of your upper leg is filled with a bunch of unprotected nerves.

This is the same exact area that kids jokingly punch to give each other a "Charley-Horse" that hurts like hell, weakens the leg, and aches for several minutes afterwards... and that's with a single "knuckle-punch" from a child.

Knowing this, a few of Tank's smaller opponents simply took their shin and drove it sideways right into this soft, fleshy explosion of nerves.




His size actually worked against him as there was no way for him to move fast enough to defend against this sneak attack.  The effects were immediate... and devastating!  Tank's leg instantly weakened and you could see the defeat in his once-vicious eyes.

He hobbled and gave up, realizing he had no more "structure" to put his massive frame to use. He was powerless. THIS is how you need to think when facing a bigger, stronger attacker!

Don't think "punch" like most people do - it will just bounce off of the giant thug in front of you and just piss him off.  Instead, a dirty "low blow" where you drive your shin through the outside upper part of your attacker's thigh will bring him to his knees.

It doesn't have to be fancy or look pretty - you simply twist your body to put all your weight behind a powerful "side-swipe" of his upper leg, driving through and imagining that you're literally chopping off both his legs with your own.

But while this move was able to topple a giant time and time again, the most dangerous tactics are the ones that are so brutal that they can't even be used in cage fights. Those are the moves you want to master.

You see, the common street criminal, gangbanger thug, and predator looking to target you isn't going to follow any "rules" of the octagon. He's going to fight dirty.

He's going to grab a baseball bat... throw a beer bottle... grab you by the balls... claw your eyes... because it works.  THAT is what "real fighting" looks like on the street.

And that's why you need to be cautious about your confidence level with flowery martial arts moves you'll find at most local dojos.

Most of them won't do you a damn bit of good because instructors know that the 8-year olds' moms aren't going to pay that monthly bill if little Johnny is being taught to "fight dirty", right?

Seek out a practical fighting system that has a proven record for working against violent criminals big and small.

Wing Chun Lesson 4:  Basic leg exercise / Moving forward

Here are the categories of attackers in which there are always a few who can tolerate pain to some degree.

• Attackers who have large fat or muscle bulk.
• Attackers who are intoxicated on alcohol.
• Attackers who are under the influence of drugs.
• Attackers who are out of control with rage.
• Attackers who are mentally deranged.
• Attackers who feel pain but like it.

People with extreme bulk

People carrying excessive fat or muscle bulk are often tolerant of certain pain techniques simply because their mass prevents proper application, or it literally pads the pain receptors.

Whether you’re applying a wrist-lock or raking your fingers across an assailant’s eyeballs, his brain receives “ouch” signals by a type of pain receptor called nociceptors.

Some parts of the human body have many of these, while other parts have only a few. The eye, for example, has more than the chest, wrist or back.

Case in point, a person suffering a heart attack complains of a dull ache in the chest while a person whose pointy finger is suddenly wrenched in a direction it isn’t supposed to go, screams and utters every blue word in the Book of Swearing.

Anytime you deliver force over a relatively large area, for example, a kick to the assailant’s back, fewer pain receptors are activated than when you apply that same force to a smaller area, such as a heel kick to his gums.

Some people under the influence of alcohol and drugs experience a dulling of the consciousness, and some people in a state of extreme rage or mental illness experience an over-riding of the consciousness.

This means that there are some in both groups who might not feel broad-surface pain but will feel acute pain signals.

Remember the axiom: Where the head goes the body follows. With that fighting concept in mind, practice techniques that:

• push the big attacker’s chin up and back.
• push the back of his head forward and down.
• take advantage of any weight shift to force the big person down in whatever direction he’s leaning.

These concepts are also applicable when dealing with normal sized people who are impervious to pain.

What is important when dealing with people impervious to pain is the same thing that is important when dealing with any hostile person: When something isn’t working for you, you need to switch tactics.

Logical? Not always. Perhaps you’ve heard the stories of panicked people in a burning building pushing against a locked door over and over until it’s too late to take another avenue of escape. The same thing can happen when an adrenaline surge takes over your rational thinking.

You hit a violent person, say, in the chest. When that doesn’t get the desired effect, you keep hitting him there, over and over.

Of course, you might eventually wear the guy down, but since he isn’t feeling the blows, the window of opportunity is wide open for him to attack you in some fashion.

People intoxicated, high, enraged and mentally ill

There is a wide-range of responses to pain within this general category. Some feel a little and others feel nothing.

There are many reasons why a person will grimace and smile as you give him your best shot. He might be smiling simply because he is drunk or high and doesn’t feel it, he might have had a violent past and is conditioned to pain, or it could be some sort of sexual issue with him. It might even be a blend of all these things.

Train to keep attacking

It’s important to train in such a fashion that you don’t become unnerved when someone doesn’t react to your best joint lock, palm-heel strike, or roundhouse kick. Here is why.

Say you apply a joint lock on a nasty drunk, the same technique that made your classmate dance funny-like on his tiptoes. Not only does the intoxicated man not react, he looks puzzled, as if he isn’t sure what you’re doing and what you want from him.

You look puzzled, too, as you wonder why the technique isn’t eliciting the usual yelp and chest slap. Then, because you allowed half a dozen seconds to pass during your confusion, the drunk smashes you in your puzzled face.

When a radio talk show host doesn’t say anything for a few seconds, it’s known as “dead air,” and considered a bad thing. When you pause or hesitate in a physical confrontation while the threat is still, well, a threat, that too can be a bad thing.

To prevent this, you must train physically as well as mentally to keep on the offense until the seemingly invulnerable person is under control.

Say you kick the man in the thigh twice, neither blow drawing so much as a grimace. Although you see his lack of reaction, don’t pause to wonder what went wrong.

Instead, immediately hit targets where there are more pain receptors, targets that shock the brain, or targets where an injury greatly reduces the recipient’s ability to attack.


Pepper Spray

Regardless of what the ads claim, pepper spray doesn’t always work on the street, and never is this truer than when the threat is violent with rage, mental illness, or high on booze or drugs.

Pepper spray is only a tool. Don’t count on it as the end-all defense, especially against pain-resistant people.

Consider the Groin

When a student gets whacked in the groin in class, he drops into fetal position and begins channeling Nancy Kerrigan: “Whyyyy? Whyyyy?” But in the street, striking an aggressor in the groin gets mixed results.

Sometimes he curls to the sidewalk in agony and sometimes he doesn’t give the hit a passing thought. The problem is that there is no way to tell by looking at someone as to how he will react to a groin hit.

The groin is a good target; just don’t stop to watch for a reaction. It’s better to flow into a second, third, or however many techniques it takes to stop the threat.

1. Kenpo Art of Punching (Straight Punch)


a) Stand in position as illustarted, with both fists clenched, and at the side of your waist. Make sure
that your palm sides are facing upward.

b) Throw a straight right punch.
Remember, as you throw your right punch,
twist your right arm half-way so your palm is facing downward, (as shown in the picture).

c) Bring your right arm back to the same position,
then throw your left arm in the same way as before,
ensuring that you twist your arm to change the direction of your palm.

Practice this method of punching left and right until your fists become strong.


2. Punching With Side Fist

a) Stand sideways as shown in the picture. Raise your left forearm to just below your chin.

Your right hand should be clenched into a fist and held against your waist.

b) Strike the board with the side of your left fist, and then bring your arm back rapidly to the initial position.

c) Repeat exercise for ten strikes with each arm.